


This Isn't An Issue Of Picket Fences

by InfinitySoundsxx



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst, Big Boy with experimental MIRV, Brotherhood of Steel - Freeform, Canon-Typical Violence, Explosions, F/M, Finding Oneself, Knife in the gut, Making Love, Minutemen, Mourning, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Smoking, Smut, War, institute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 08:01:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6603148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinitySoundsxx/pseuds/InfinitySoundsxx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aeron was a lawyer who gave birth six months ago. The world ends and she finds herself mourning her husband, searching for a lost child all while building together a better commonwealth. She finds in herself a strength she didn't know she had and finds a companion to comfort her at the end of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Isn't An Issue Of Picket Fences

**Author's Note:**

> Aeron is an OC I use through different fandoms. Her name means goddess of war. This is based off my first play through of the game, though technically I used my name but that wouldn't be as fun to make this about myself.

And like that, my home, my life was changed forever. The bombs detonated around the country and world. Standing on that elevator pad with my neighbors, my husband and infant son, we saw the thundering shock wave blow towards us and the sudden increase in heat was overwhelming. Couldn't this elevator go down any faster? My husband cradled our son and I as we make the descent. What was going to happen to the people who didn't make it? Would it ever be safe to go back to the surface? Would my family and the generations to come live in the vault for the rest of time? I thought about Codsworth. Would he eventually rust out? His parts fail due to lack of maintenance or did he even make it through the uranium blasts. We soon saw the light from the vault below. The elevator slowed as it finally reaches the ground and the gate opened up. People in blue suits hovered around the entrance as we got off. Welcoming us home or what would become home. A man ushered us through I could only imagine was radiation sensors. A doctor checked our vitals and a woman handed out vault suits. Nate always said blue was my color. 

Another man ushered us through the vault until we got to an array of pods, "Put your vault suits on and just climb in. These pods are designed to depressurize you before we head deeper into the main vault," he said as he smiled at my husband and I. 

His gray hair and softly smile may tell an honest story but his eyes gave off a sense that we weren't getting the whole truth. Shaun let out a soft cry. I could tell he was getting impatient for his next meal. I tried to comfort him the best I could as the security personnel seemed to be in a rush to get us into the pods. I kissed his forehead and promised a meal after the procedure was done and kissed Nate. He smiled against my lips reassuringly that this new life and home would all work out. At least we were safe from the chaos above. I pulled my vault suit on and climbed into the pod across from Nate's. I pressed a hand on the glass as he pressed his against his and looked into my eyes. A countdown started to come over the speakers and I soon saw my breathe and could feel the temperature drop. Just moments ago we experience the blinding heat and light of an nuclear war now the world was going black and cold with sinister intent.

Have you ever been alone with your thoughts? Quietly organizing everything event you ever went to, every book you've ever read, every meal you've ever tasted. It was dark and cold. It seemed like time was ticking by so slowly. Seconds were exaggerated in frozen stasis. They were going to warm us up and take us to our new home right? My son would have his first birthday in six months. We didn't even get to make him his first Halloween costume or take him to the park. He'd never know the feeling of fresh cut grass under his bare feet in our hot Boston summers, or having snow so high school would be cancelled for at least three weeks. This is what you think about when you're trapped in your own body. Unable to move, no one to hear you even shiver. Just the faint fear that you were going to die a Popsicle. There was a faint voice over the speakers and I felt as if I was thawing. Two strange figured hovered around my husband's pod. Was he alright? What about Shaun? I heard their faint voices, a woman stating he was the one and a man telling her to open the pod. The hiss of the pod was deafening and I could even hear Nate's teeth chatter as he got used to his blood moving again. Shaun started to cry and Nate held him close as the man told him to give up Shaun.   
The woman tried taking him out of his arms and Nate struggled, "I've got him!" He shouted, and all I could do was watch as they stole my son away.

The man pointed a pistol at Nate. I wanted to get out, tackle the man who dared harm my family. 

"I'm not telling you again. Let the boy go," he said coolly. Then the shot rang out. I couldn't cry out, my scream frozen in my throat. The woman took my son. Leaving my husband to bleed out right before my eyes. 

The man looked into my window and all I could do was stare back. "At least we have the backup." 

I memorized the smirk, the scar over his left eye. He soon walked away and the last thing I heard was the sound of the air refreezing around me, "Cryo sequence reinitialized."

I was going to die. Trapped as an ice cube. I needed to get out. Find my son and bury Nate. This vault would be my tomb, my own personal hell tortured with the image of my son being stolen, my husband being dead with his ghost being my only company. How long was it now? I stopped counting the days. It seemed like it was only yesterday we escaped the radiation and bombing only to be stuck in these pods. I soon realized no one was coming and I'd be fully aware of when I started dying. I should accept my fate. My son would never know that his father was in the military. He'd never play football or baseball. He'd never know me. The woman who carried him for nine months and 4 days. I'd never see him grow up. I wouldn't send him off for his first day of kindergarten or see him graduated high school. I'd never give him money for losing his first tooth or leave out cookies for Santa. I was left with nevers and the thoughts of what if. I resigned myself to sleep, hoping the cold would finally settle in my lungs and strangle me out of my last breathes. Maybe I'd dream of the coast in the summer. The sounds of the waves and laughter of happy people swimming or lounging in the sun. Maybe heaven would be eternally green and our old dog Winston would be waiting with Nate for me to finally come home. I was jerked out of my thoughts when alarms sounded off and I felt my blood flow to my extremities. 

A computerized female voice came over the speakers as the temperature in my pod warmed up and I slammed my weakened fist against the pod door, "Critical failure in cryogenic array. All residents must vacate immediately." 

The door hissed open and I tumbled out onto the wet floor. Catching my breathe in the stale sealed air, I hurried to stand up but my legs protested. I hadn't moved in who knows how long and my joints laughed as I tried to make my way to my husband's pod. I hammered my hand against the glass, hoping I was just in a bad dream and he was still alive. The buttons next to the pod flashed and I slammed my fingers on it repeatedly to hurry the process. I moved out of the way as soon as the door hissed and opened. Tears welled up as I took Nate's face in my hands. He was cold. Lifeless and gone. Never to come back and help me find our son. I leaned my head against his. Weeping as I made a promise, "I'll find who did this and I'll find shaun. I'll get him back.." I left a soft kiss to his pale lips and took his ring off. Slipping it into a hidden pocket of the vault suit. I gathered the strength after what seemed like hours of holding Nate and I went in search of any other survivors in this hellish vault. 

I looked at the 5 other pods in the room. They didn't seem to open and no one responded when I banged on the windows. So far I seemed alone. None of the vault staff or security seem to be running to my aid. Maybe there were others they were helping. The only voice was the alert place repeated over the speakers. Dread slowly started to scratch at scratch back of my mind as I found the computer terminal that controlled the pods. I looked through menus finding the status of the rest of my neighbors and they all had died.

“Asphyxiation due failure in cryogenic array.”

I began to lose hope. I couldn't be the only one to have made it. I left the pod room and began to look for anyone. I went down the hallway we came down when we first got here and to the door way. I slammed the sliding door button but it just buzzed back at me in annoyance. Stuck. The gears are probably stiff from limited use. I looked in the tool box that sat on the cart beside the wall and found some tools. Stuffing them in my pockets, I searched for another way. Finding a corridor to the generator room. I looked into the window seeing the unit was still on. Sudden a giant roach crawled up the other side of the window. I jumped back,   
“Shit..giant bugs? What the hell happened..” I watched as it flew off the window and scurried around the floor.

I looked around for something that I could use as a weapon and found a police baton. I needed to get through that room to get to someone. The door hissed open and I slowly walked in, baton raised to strike. There was a smaller roach in the doorway of what looked like the dining hall.it crawled towards me, hissing at me for invading its space. I lunged before it could bite and smashed it with the baton. I went into the kitchen, finding the sleeping quarters opposite the mess hall. It was a wreck. Mattresses and bunks toppled over. I searched for anything useful and found a small bag that was empty. Great, hopefully I'll find some stuff to help. I carried it over my shoulder, picking up the toaster and hot plate that sat on the counter of the kitchen. I searched the fridge, nothing. I saw the small recreational terminal. Searching the drawers I found an old flip lighter and a pack of cigarettes. The terminal didn't have anything of use just a holotape of Red Menace. I sighed and stuffed the tape in my pocket as I left the dining hall. Taking a breath, I opened the door to the next room, baton raised for what might creep out next. It was the reactor room, it seemed mostly online, electricity was sparking and arcing off one of the generators. One of those roaches was cleaning it's legs and fluttering its wings in between the two generators until an arc zapped and killed it. Good, one less problem to deal with. I found two more as I circled the walkway and a skeleton rested in front of the door. What happened here. I'd probably never find out. The door opened to a small set of stairs. Another two roaches killed. How did they even get in here. I was sure this place was sealed up. Maybe it was that man.

The door hissed open, stomachs rested on the desk and a skeleton laid on the floor. The overseer. He had left his 10 mm pistol and some ammo for me. I looked through the terminal. An escape route was locked and all I needed was to fix it through the computer. The door opened open the emergency escape route but I continued to look through the files of the overseer's terminal. A cryogun was in the locked case in the security locker. I had no bobby pins and I doubt the overseer would be stupid enough to leave a control to open it on the computer. I wasn't about to shoot the case either. Luck wasn't exactly on my side. I grabbed all the ammo I could find and went through through tunnel, killing 6 more roaches and finally making it to where we checked into the vault. No one was here. I was the only one other then Shaun to have made it out. I kicked a couple of roaches to get to the controls for the vault door and elevator. Taking the pip-boy from the doctor we say when we first got in and turns on the door to cycle open. I waited and hurried out to the elevator as soon as the door rolled away. The elevator came down and stopped to let me on. 

Soon, I'd be up on the surface to search for my son and my husband's killer.

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive Criticism welcome.


End file.
